Drowning Instinct
by Darkwolfpup22
Summary: During the Bell Test. Kakashi performed a move that sent Naruto into the lake. Only problem is, Naruto can't swim. And Naruto has a rather bad case of PTSD. Looks like Kakashi and team seven is gonna find out the truth early this time. What will it change?


**Summary: During the Bell Test. Kakashi performed a move that sent Naruto into the lake. Only problem is, Naruto can't swim. And Naruto has a rather bad case of PTSD. Looks like Kakashi and team seven is gonna find out the truth early this time. What will it change?**

 **AN: I should say I only watch the engish dub. So sorry but not many honourfics, BUT I'm sure you'll manage.**

 **DISCLAIMER: I DONT OWN LE-NARUTOS**

Naruto had no idea what had just happened, one second he had been performing a really cool technique to get those stupid silver bells from his new "sensei" and now he was flying through the air with a very sharp pain in-places-that-we-do-not-mention. As he flew (and screamed) he idly wondered where he was going to land. If it was the grass then he was fine, it was soft and would cushion his fall nicely. However if he landed on a stone he may end up in more pain than he already was. Naruto turned his blue eyes downward and obseved his trajectory.

Oh... oh sh*t, oh god, oh kami, oh no!

Of course it was the f****** water. Greeeaaat. Naruto couldn't swim. Nothing much else to it really.

Since he was an orphan (and a hated one at that,) he had never had anyone teach him how to swim. The villagers took no pity on the young blonde, but... then again... why would they? One of their favourite methods of trying to kill him involved them throwing him into the lake or river near the village. Oh how they laughed. Loud and genuinely, shouting sentences such as "THE DEMON IS FINALLY DEAD!" or the classic "THE FOX IS GONE"

Nothing Naruto was not used to.

And he would yell, and scream, and thrash, he found out pretty fast you couldn't really scream underwater... yelling insults or yelling for help was not very effective either. But he would struggle and try with all his strength to move his body in an upwards direction... to little effect. On the off chance the current was not against him, he would claw his way back to the surface and breathe in the soothing, much needed air. Before being hauled out and straped to a few rocks... and thrown right back in. Only the ANBU the Hokage had been assigned to watch him managed to stop him drowning every other week.

*SPLASH*

Naruto hit the water with an almighty crash and dissapeared under the surface, sending a big guyser of white water shooting upwards. Naruto opened his tightly closed blue eyes and looked around at his predicament, the surface of the lake looked down on him, winking with the sun.

For a moment the blonde just stayed still and let the greedy current drag him to the bottom. However before he even got halfway down his ears began to thrum and his chest constricted from the pressure.

In a sudden burst of energy and determination, Naruto kicked his legs and tried to drag himself up to the surface

Nope.

He wasn't doing anything other than tiering himself out. Trying to clam his suddenly racing heart he thought back to when he used to wistfully stare at the groups of children swimming happily in the lake. He remembered how when he had tried to join in, the parents had dragged thier children forcibly away from him. But he managed to reach far enough into his mind to recall the way some of the kids had been moving.

Kick, pull arms, kick, pull arms, kick

To quote Shakespeare: it was not be. Naruto could feel his last bit of breath leaving him and he closed his eyes, his body went limp and as his body reflectivly took a breath his lungs filled with water. Before the darkness claimed him he could also think about how his whole life, his dream to be Hokage, had been crushed by a bit of water.

 _'F***s sake'_ he thought.

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Kakashi watched as Naruto hit the water. He sighed mentally, he had expected more from the boy, but then again, Naruto had never had a proper education. The third Hokage had tried man times to try and get the school chunin to try and teach him equally to little effect, there was just too much hate there.

Kakashi expanded his chakra to locate the other two. Ah yes, there they are, Sakura had a small amount but it was still identifiable, and Sasuke... oh. How interesting. The boy had actually managed to successfully hide his chakra signature... but not well enough. Kakash was about to go find them when he realised something: Where was Naruto? By now that blonde knucklehead should of been back and "challenging" him already, could he be actually working on a strategy?

Kakashi turned around and saw the ripples on the lake begin to settle, wait... had Naruto not surfaced yet? It had actually been a while... and he definitely had not come back up, Kakashi would have heard him. He flared his chakra again and detected the orange-clad ninja's own.

What the?

It was so weak, strange, Naruto's chakra was so plentiful it could almost be suffocating when he used it.. so where'd it go? Kakashi highly doubted that Naruto was able to surpress his chakra signature.

 _'Obito wasn't very good at that either'_

Kakashi paused, where had that come from? He did admit Naruto did remind him of his old teammate somewhat, it was almost scary at times. Kakashi absentmindly touched his hi-ate (headband) that covered his right eye.

' _Obito's eye'_ he automaticlly corrected.

Wait had Naruto still not come up? Oh Kami! In a moment of clarity he wondered if the boy could actually swim...

Probably not.

Kakashi's one visible eye widened and he spun around before running and diving into the lake, making sure to seal his Icha Icha before he hit the water. There he looked around and saw on the lakebed, Naruto was laying there. He wasn't moving. Kakashi propelled himself down and reinforced his lungs with a small bit of chakra, he immidiatly found it easier to hold his breath, and the pressure didn't effect him as much. He got to the bottom and looked at the Uzumaki, his lips had turned blue and his eyes were shut, he looked peaceful.

And by that Kakashi meant dead.

He gently pulled the boy into one of his arms and used the oher to swim to the surface. There was absolutely no way he was letting his beloved sensei's son die. Not on his watch. He broke the surface and pulled himself and Naruto onto the bank.

"Kakashi sensei?"

He looked up, Sakura. Well at least she cared enough to compromise her hiding spot to check on them. That was something at least.

Shaking his head slightly to reassure her he was fine he pushed Naruto onto his back and unzipped the orange jacket revealing the black t-shirt underneath, he then pumped his chest to try and expel the water from the kids lungs. When that proved ineffective he released a concentrated burst of chakra through his fingers and into Naruto's chest, pushing the water more forcibly out.

Naruto spluttered and suddenly coughed up a rather alarming amount of water. He heaved for a few seconds before opening his eyes, they were dilated and confused.

"Naruto?" asked Sakura slowly

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Naruto forced his eyes open and took in the blurry figures above him, what happened? His memories hit him like a ton of bricks, he had almost drowned. Immidiatly his mind went back to all the times that had happened before, if he was out of the water now... then he knew what was coming next.

 _He sank quicker and quicker, bubbles escaping his mouth too fast to be normal_

They would put weights (rocks mostly) on him

 _He clawed at his throat and looked at the surface, his vision fading_

They would drag him down and keep him at the bottom of the lake

 _He kicked his legs, but it as no use, against the current_ _and_ _the rocks he had little to no chance._

There he would lie, helpless as his lungs dragged in a mouthful of water

 _Naruto almost gagged at the influx of water into his lungs, he hadn't been able to hold his breath long enough for the ANBU to arrive. The last thing he heard before passing out were the proud and happy cheers of the villagers. As well as congratulations for killing the demon._

Naruto's instincts kicked in

Brain fuzzy and eyes unfocused he yelled for help and tried to scramble away from the villagers. He only made it about two feet before practically collapsing, but he would not be dragged to the bottom of that lake again! He once again heaved his body and attempted to escape. His subconcious was screaming at him to run, flee, get away: before they kill you for real this time!

However a hand pressed against his back and pinned him to the ground, he yelled out and kicked, no! They would not do it again, not if he had anything to say about it.

" _Na_ rut _o_!"

What the?

Someone had grabbed hold of his face, next thing he knew he was staring into a pair of bright green eyes.

"ANBU-san?" he ventured confused

Wait...

Pink hair? Green eyes? That looked familiar...

"S-Sakura?" he tried again

His eyes finally cleared and the world suddenly came into focus again. Now he was really confused, what had happened?

"Wha- *cough* what happened?"

She looked at him closely

"Oh thank Kami you're back!"

"Back?"

Naruto felt the hand lift from between his shoulder blades and turned to see a dripping wet Kakashi. Wait... had Kakashi sensei saved him? Would he?

"Kaka-*cough*-shi sensei?" he asked

Kakashi gave him a small eye smile and a wave

"Yo."

Naruto stood up shakily and coughed some more.

"Are you ok?" Sakura asked. She seemed genuinely curious, looking closer she was also deathly white. A small amount of blood was leaking from a collection of three small cuts on her arm, looking down he also saw three of his finger-nails were stained with a small bit of blood. Oh... ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh.

"Oh Kami! Sakura I am so sorry! Does it hurt? I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!"

She cut him off by holding up a hand

"You idiot! I'm fine! It's you who's the one who almost died!"

Naruto sat on the grass heavily, thats right, another drowning, another save. He glanced over at the silver haired jounin and his confused brain finally put the peices together

"Y-you're the one that pulled me out of the lake"

Kakashi nodded and crouched

"Now" he said surprisingly seriously "looks like you have some explaining to do"

Naruto panicked slightly, what if they found out, Kami they would think he was so weak! And then he would have to tell them about the abuse as well, and that may lead to telling them about the Kyuubi... no, he couldn't risk it.

"What do you mean Kakashi-sensei? I just never learned to swim is all, thanks by the way for saving me, that was really cool of you."

"You know that's not what I mean Naruto"

Naruto paled

"You know, the bit where you completely lost it and looked like we were out to kill you"

Naruto made up another excuse

"Well, I was disorientated, I didn't recognise you, that's all."

"Bullsh*t"

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, he was standing a little ways off with his hands in his pockets.

"You were practically screaming dobe-(Sasuke's nickname for Naruto in the japanese version, means dead-last) - you wern't confused, you were _terrified."_

Naruto coughed, but it was more to fill the expectant silence rather than an attempt to get rid of the last bits of water in his lungs.

"It's nothing. Just memories is all."

Hopefully that would satisfy their curiousity

"Memories, what does that mean?"

Oh for f***s sake

"Nothing ok! The villagers just try and drown me every couple of weeks, you know, then they sometimes fish me out and strap me to rocks! And there's NOTHING I can do about it because I CANT SWIM! And NOBODY will teach me! Cause they don't want thier daily dose of drown-the-demon-brat-fun to be ruined. THERE! YOU HAPPY NOW!?"

Naruto ended on a shout, his repressed anger all flooding out in one long rant/explanation. However where that anger had been before the rant had suddenly been replaced by a large emptiness and no small amount of resentment.

There was silence for the longest time before it was broken by the pinkette.

"Wha? Naruto... that... that isnt true, is it?"

Realising his mistake he quickly assumed the stupid facade

"No Sakura, I'm just annoyed that I got beaten by water is all"

His grin fooled no one.

However Naruto was completely astounded when the emerald eyed girl suddenly wrapped her arms around him, it seemed... stiff, and more than a little awkward, but she was trying, and that was what mattered. Naruto returned the gesture.

"Aww! Group hug!" Both genin had no time to react before they were both almost crushed by a certain silver-haired jonin.

"Gah!" yelled the blonde in surprise, however just as soon as it had begin it had ended

"Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go see the Hokage, be here at 7:00 tommorrow and we will try this again."

He dissapeared in a swirl of leaves with nothing but a wave and an eye smile.

"Wait did we pass?"

"Y-yeah I think so."

There was a moment of cheering before some silence, broken only be Sakura's sudden "observation"

"New sensei is wierd"

"Amen to that" said Naruto agreeing with his crush

"Hn"

"Sorry teme (bastard) I don't speak no-emotion.

"Hn... dobe"

"WHAT WAS THAT!?"

"You heard me"

"Ohhhhhhh! I'll get you Sasuke-teme!"

"NARUTO! DON'T INSULT SASUKE-KUN!" there was less malice behind the words this time.

"As if a dead-last like you could ever even hope to beat me" Sasuke smirked, but not condecendingly like usual. Less... assholey if you will...

"OH YEAH?! I'LL BEAT YOU AND BECOME HOKAGE! BELIEVE IT!"

"Hn"

"OH THAT'S IT YOU ARE SO GOING DOWN!" Naruto lunged for the black haired boy and shouted his favourite move

"Shadow clone jutsu!"

*Poof*

"Guys stop fighting

It was different this time, they were both... nicer. Part of the blonde knew it was out of pity but right now he didn't care, all he wanted right now was to fight his un-proclaimed rival.

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Somewhere nearby, a jonin observed the three.

"Yep, this team is gonna be troublesome... Kami, I'm starting to sound like the Nara's" Despite this however, he smiled behind his mask and went off to learn more about Naruto's... err... problem with the villagers. Oh! And he's have to give the boy some swimming lessons.

Pulling out a familiar orange book he hopped through the village towards the Hokage tower.

 **Aaaaand it's over. Dunno why I decided to write this but... meh. I guess its ok.**

 **This oneshot is dedicated to a friend of mine called Niamh, who I got recently obsessed with Naruto. Like its scary, but at least we can talk about it. Brownie points for me!**

 **Anyway thank you so much for reading I hope you enjoyed this oneshot, please review and tell me what you thought. Trust me, I'll still be reading the reviews in 2019.**

 **Darkwolfpup22**

 **Over and out**


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